Google Announces New Line of Hardware, Vies to Create Product Ecosystem

Our futures will be filled with more stuff

There was a lot of talk in the '80s and '90s about the paperless office. As personal computers began to proliferate, we were told, paper would go away. We now know the opposite happened, and that we use more paper than ever.

Similarly, in design schools of the '90s, one of the hot topics was dematerialization. The thinking was that technology would reduce the amount of physical objects we interacted with. As industrial designers whose job was to create physical products, we were told, our challenge would be to focus on getting the user experience right.

I saw this dematerialization begin to come true in 2001 with the release of the original iPod. Suddenly I no longer had to carry a Discman and a bunch of discs around if I wanted to listen to music. This trend accelerated sharply in 2007; with this new thing called an iPhone, I no longer had to carry an iPod, a camera, books. Just one little rectangle.

But the iPhone was the last invention I can think of that reduced my personal object load. Since then the leading-edge companies have been making more objects, not less. Apple's expanded into watches. Amazon used to be a bookseller, now they make the Fire and the Echo. GoPro made cameras, now they're making drones. Google used to be a web portal, and yesterday they rolled out an entire line of physical products, starting with their Pixel phone:

The videos aren't terribly original nor exciting, and if you blur your eyes they could've been made by Apple or any other competitor. But that's not the point, as these are intended to be splashy eye-candy videos. What I found telling is that Google also released some "How these fit into your life" videos, like this one for the Google Home…

Enter a caption (optional)

…and in every case, the traffic for the eye-candy videos surpasses the traffic of the lifestyle videos. To me, the disparity suggests one of two things: Either that 1) People already understand how these objects would (or would not) fit into their lives, and don't need to see a video spelling it out, or 2) People don't care how these objects fit into their lives, and are only interested in the New New New.

Whether it's the former or the latter, it appears that we'll be seeing, at least from the companies mentioned here, more physical objects rather than less. That doesn't mean all of them will stick around: The HTC First, a/k/a the Facebook Phone, famously flopped; so did Amazon's Fire smartphone; and anyone remember Google Glass? But we can expect to see continued incursions by companies that have the money.

For years Google was content to stay out of this space, letting others make the phone and licensing Android for free while they profited only off embedded Android services. The control was decentralized. But now they're finally coming around to what Steve Jobs seized upon at least as far back as 2001, with that original iPod, and that was the realization that it's only partially about the object, and more about the product ecosystem that it operates within. When you've got control over the entire system, from hardware to software, you can more fully control the user experience (for better or worse). That Google is now ready to take this step means that Apple and the others will have to up their game. The ensuing competition, and a willingness to experiment, should ultimately lead to better experiences for consumers.

The latest design news, jobs & events. Straight to you every other week.

Join over 300,000 designers who stay up-to-date with the Core77 newsletter...

The London studio offers a behind-the-scenes look at crowdfunded collaboration

First, there was the likes of Studio Neat, Craighton Berman, and Don Lehman; then came Scott Wilson, Pebble, and Yves Béhar. Fast forward a few years, and products are among the most successful projects of all time — albeit not without the proverbial “risks and challenges” that a new company

They're creating a physical product that supports their app

Too early to tell if it'll work, but this is interesting: Snapchat is reinventing themselves as Snap Inc.--and now calling themselves a camera company. "We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate," they write. To reinvent the camera, they've made

Please explain this to your non-ID friends

Please circulate this among your friends who are not industrial designers. Because just when we think an awareness of our role has finally permeated society, we see we've still got a ways to go. Take, for example, the rash of "How Much Does It Cost to Make an iPhone?" videos.

Plume's Adaptive WiFi system is reinventing home WiFi distribution

Anyone who's experienced slow-loading videos and seemingly never-ending downloads knows the pain of a poor WiFi connection. It's a problem many are trying to solve (just take a look at Starry and OnHub), but newcomer Plume thinks they have the solution: magic internet jewels. Advocating for users to ditch